Veteran offensive lineman Jairo Varela points to junior running back Ryan Cerza as a big factor in Aurora Central Catholic’s resurgence and the numbers back him up.
“He reads the holes better this year and he’s worked a lot,” Varela said. “He’s always in the weight room with us.”
Varela, a 6-foot-2, 275-pound senior in his third year starting at left tackle for ACC, plays a key role in opening those holes.
The 6-foot, 175-pound Cerza is in his second year as the lead back for the Chargers (4-0). He’s topped 100 yards rushing in all four games and averages 143.8.
“His vision and ability to see gaps is much improved,” ACC coach John Belskis said of Cerza. “He’s faster and stronger. He used to shy away from contact a bit, but now, he will lower his shoulder.
“He’s also continuing to work on things that make a good running back great and that’s improving his blocking and carrying out fakes. He’s only a junior but he’s playing like a senior.”
Out of the norm: Trailing 10-0 at halftime Friday at Bishop McNamara, Marmion’s players knew why they were down.
“We only had the ball three times,” Cadets coach Dan Thorpe said. “We had three fumbles we lost, so we really never had the ball.”
That was quite a turnaround from the team’s first three games, when the Cadets built an 11-1 turnover ratio with nine interceptions and two fumbles recovered vs. no interceptions and just one fumble lost.
Marmion rallied for a 16-10 win with two fourth-quarter touchdown drives and a field goal off a lost fumble by the Irish.
“They started their drives on the 20 in the second half,” Thorpe said. “In the first half, they had several short drives.”
Plano closing gap: The Reapers erupted for 43 first-quarter points in a 63-26 rivalry win over neighboring Sandwich. The series dates to 1903 but hasn’t been continuous.
Sandwich leads the series 49-44-3, according to research by local historian Chris Schwemlein.
A telling tweak: Plano coach Brad Kunz wasn’t ready to call it the difference-maker in the game, but a minor adjustment on his offensive line may have contributed.
He moved starting tackle Noah Parris back to the right side and Austin Magnuson back to the left against Sandwich.
“We had flipped them from last year during the summer and for the first three games,” Kunz said. “I had noticed when we worked as the scout team for our defense in practice, they were switching back to their old positions.”
A former lineman himself, Kunz understood.
“When you play one side of the line for two years you develop muscle memory and it becomes more natural,” he said. “We had reasons for the original move but maybe it just didn’t work out.”
No reason to howl: Despite winning their fourth straight with a 40-19 rout of Plainfield South, Oswego East coach Tyson LeBlanc felt the Wolves had plenty of room for improvement.
“I didn’t think we played very well,” he said. “We had 100 yards in penalties and we had three turnovers on offense. It seemed like every time we broke a big play we had a holding call against us.
“And defensively, we had a couple blown coverages.”
East did get off to a fast start.
“We took the opening kick and drove for a TD,” LeBlanc said. “And then, we blocked a punt on their first series and scored.”
Twitter @RickArmstrong28
